


Vengeance will be Mine

by Another_Introvert



Series: The Vanishing Acts [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: BAMF Pepper Potts, BAMF Peter Parker, BAMF Tony Stark, Kidnapping, Protective Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Ronin Clint Barton, Torture, but like a beta version, but not much i promise, i don't like hurting my boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:35:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23549257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Another_Introvert/pseuds/Another_Introvert
Summary: Hundreds of people furious with the Avengers for failing to stop Thanos invades the compound, leaving Tony and Peter figuring out how to stay alive without their tech long enough for backup to arrive.Includes much panic, angst, a kidnapping, and badassery.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Peter Parker, Pepper Potts & Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: The Vanishing Acts [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1675369
Comments: 18
Kudos: 78





	1. The Alarm

Tony had always been a light sleeper.

It always got worse after he’d experienced some trauma. First Afghanistan, then New York, Ultron, Thanos. The list went on and on. But what mattered was that anything could wake Tony.

Especially the sound of a not-alarm-clock alarm going off at 2 AM.

Instantly, Tony was up and he shot into an upright position. “F.R.I? What’s happening?”

F.R.I.D.A.Y’s voice glitched when she responded. “Intru- 389- systems failing-”

_ Peter.  _ Tony thought, his heart speeding up as he remembered that he and his protege were the only ones in the compound. Pepper was in Toronto, Bruce had gone to find Helen Cho in South Korea, and the Avengers were all out in different places in the world that Tony didn’t care to recall. All he could think of was getting to Peter.

He stumbled out of the bed and to his feet, quickly slipping his into the shoes on the side of his bed. He raced towards his bedroom door and threw it open, ready to sprint down the hall to Peter’s room and get the kid as far away from whatever was happening as possible. 

But just as he stepped out of the door, the sound of something exploding and falling filled his ears. Looking up, he saw a  _ piece of the fucking roof falling.  _

Without thinking, Tony jumped backwards, the debris barely missing him.

“What the fuck?!” Tony shouted. “F.R.I.D.A.Y?! What the fuck is going on?!”   


“Armed intruders- approximately 478 people on compo- Boss I’m going-”

His AI’s voice cut out, and Tony shouted her name a few more times, but got no response. So, Tony tried another name that had to say something back. 

“Peter?!” Tony yelled down the hallway. “Peter, where are you?! Answer me right now, that’s an order!”

Nothing. Maybe he hadn’t heard him. Tony made his way around the fallen roof and ignored another explosion from somewhere else in the building. He finally reached Peter’s door, throwing it open so hard that it was surprising the hinges didn’t break.

His eyes frantically searched the room for any sign of a superpowered tee. His bed was empty, the sheets thrown off as if he’d rushed out of the bed as Tony had. Or like someone had grabbed him.

_ No.  _

“PETER?!” Tony screamed. “Kid, wherever you are, come out right now!”

Still nothing. No, no, no, he had to be okay. He had to be around somewhere, hiding from whoever was attacking the compound. Which led to the elephant in the room: who was attacking the compound and why?

He couldn’t call for a suit because F.R.I.D.A.Y was down, and he’d given Rogers his nanite housing unit during his meltdown almost three months ago. He’d have to go find Peter, and get a suit himself. 

Trying not to panic at the thought of what could have happened to Peter, Tony went back to the fallen roof and yanked out a loose metal rod sticking out of the rubble. Holding it over his shoulder like a baseball bat, he walked forward slowly and listened carefully to the sounds around, praying he’d hear some sound that alerted him to Peter’s presence and safety. But instead, he heard another explosion and what sounded like hundreds of voices screaming outside.

Gripping the rod tighter, Tony turned the corner of the hallway where he knew there was a small window. He silently went over to it, looking out of it with one eye, which nearly popped out of his head when he saw what was outside.

Hundreds of people, all spread around the compound grounds, hurling what looked to be homemade explosives. Most of them were yelling things Tony couldn’t understand, and he could see some of them were about to break the bulletproof glass at the front entrance of the main building.

“ _ Fuck. _ ” Tony whispered. He needed to get to Peter and his suit  _ now. _

Throwing silence to the wind, Tony ran down another hallway. “Peter?! Goddammit kid, just answer me, please!”

The lack of a response was making Tony physically sick. All of the explosions weren’t helping either. The thought of Peter being caught in one of them made him want to cry. He couldn’t lose the kid to whoever these assholes were. He wasn’t allowed to die. Tony had said so. So therefore, he couldn’t die.

But the sinking feeling that something had happened to Peter, for real this time, made his whole body start to tremble. Just like when Peter had disappeared while Tony was asleep, when he went back out as Spider-man for the first time, and when his suit had gone offline last month. 

“Shit.” Tony gasped, leaning against the wall, anxiety and panic taking over. He’d never panic like this normally, but Peter was in this compound somewhere. Or maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he’d been blown up, or the mob outside had taken him and beaten him to death, or-

A sound other than his own fast breathing, an explosion, or the angry shouts outside filled Tony’s ears. It was the sound of a door opening. Ahead of him was a janitor’s closet, and the door was barely an inch open. A hand stuck out of it, gesturing Tony to come closer.

Could that be- Tony prayed it was who he thought it was. If it was anyone else, he would clobber them to death with his metal rod in less than a minute.

Getting back steady on his feet and holding up the rod, Tony slowly went towards the closet, prepared to either tackle someone with a hug or beat someone senseless. He hoped it was the former.

Reaching the door, Tony took a deep breath before yanking it open, and almost crying when he saw a wide-eyed face staring at him with his hands up.

“Oh, Pete.” Tony said, relief dripping from his voice as he dropped the rod and hugged the kid. Peter gripped him right back, and Tony was more than a little surprised to feel the boy’s hands shaking. After a moment, he pulled back, holding Peter’s forearms. “Are you alright?”

Peter nodded a little too quickly. “I’m fine. My sixth sense thing went off in the middle of the night, so I went to go check it out, and then F.R.I.D.A.Y got shut down, so I went in here to try and come up with what to do.”

“Why didn’t you come and get me?”

Peter bit his lip. “I-I kinda freaked out a little. I couldn’t think. There are so many people out there- and our suits are downstairs, and if those people find out I’m Spider-man- I’m sorry, this is stupid, this is just… a lot.”

Of course Peter would be panicking. He was a kid, having to face a mob of people that he wouldn’t dare harm. Tony would be worried if he wasn’t panicking.

“Kid, listen to me.” Tony said, getting Peter to look at him. “It isn’t stupid. This is scary. You think I’m not terrified right now? I am. You have every right to be scared. You just can’t let that fear take over. I learned that every time you did something that scared the shit out of me.”

Peter gulped. “Okay, okay. But we still need a plan. There are like, a million pissed-off people out there.”

“Almost 500, F.R.I said, before she went offline.”

“Still! How are we supposed to get to our suits? They probably already made it in by now.”

“You’re right. And we also can’t let these people know who you are. Which is why you’re staying here.”

Tony didn’t see any other reasonable option. He had to keep Peter safe, no matter what the cost. He could stop robbers or pickpockets, but not what seemed to be a fucking army.

Peter, being Peter, had to protest. “What? No! You can’t take them on all by yourself! You need Spider-man!”

“And I need Peter safe more!” He gripped the kid’s shoulders. “Peter, please. Promise me you’ll stay away. Just hide until backup comes. The rest of the Avengers will get word that F.R.I.D.A.Y shut down, so they’ll be here soon. But until then, I need you to stay safe and hidden.”

“But-”

“Peter.  _ Please. _ ”

The complete and utter desperation in Tony’s voice seemed to get through to Peter. He still looked upset, but there was also an understanding in his features. He sighed, nodding. “Please be careful.”

Tony tucked Peter against his chest once more. “I will. I promise.”

Releasing Peter, Tony patted his shoulder and picked up the metal rod. “Be safe, kid.”

And before Peter could change his mind about staying back, Tony walked out the door and shut it behind him.

\---

Peter changed his mind less than a minute later.

Tony didn’t have a suit, he didn’t have powers, and there was an angry mob outside blowing stuff up left and right. Peter wasn’t going to just sit in this honestly disgusting janitor’s closet and let his mentor die. But he also couldn’t show he was Spider-man. He had to do something.

Another explosion echoed outside, and Peter let out a shaky breath, trying to come up with what to do. His Spider-Sense wasn’t saying anything about there being people near him, so he still had some time. 

Option 1: He could try and find Tony in order to get a hold of his suit. However, he’d seen some of the mob outside carrying guns, and they had probably had made it into the compound already. One wrong move, and he was dead.

Option 2: He actually stayed in the closet, but risked Tony dying and himself being discovered and dying.

Option 3: He tried to make it to a generator or computer to get F.R.I.D.A.Y back online. It was risky, but it was a way to get all the defenses of the compound up and running.

Yeah. Peter liked Option 3.

Okay, the emergency generators were in the basement, but the mob had probably cut them off somehow. He had to find a way to get them back on. 

This totally wouldn’t backfire. Totally.

Peter looked around and grabbed a wrench that he saw on one to the weirdly wet shelves. He made the decision right then that he wouldn’t use his powers unless absolutely necessary, so it was good to have some sort of weapon on him. 

Trying to forget how likely it was that he would die, Peter opened the door and sprinted down the hall to the nearest stairway.

It was annoying as hell to have to run down so many flights of stairs, but that thought only lasted until Peter reached the third. Because that’s when he heard fairly close yelling and footsteps from above him. Shit, shit, shit.

He picked up the speed, jumping down multiple stairs at a time. His mind trailed to Tony. If the mob had gotten in, then there was a good chance they had found Tony before he could make it to a suit. But Tony was a genius. Nothing could have happened to him… right?

Holy crap, was this how Tony felt about him all the time? Now he felt bad about all times he’d done something Tony didn’t want him to do.

At last, he reached the basement. Even further below it was a bomb shelter, but the level he was on was where the emergency generators were. He’d never been down here, but Tony had offhandedly mentioned it in conversation, so he knew it was down here somewhere.

But right as he stepped off the last stair, his Spider-Sense started going insane. He expected the basement to be dark as hell, but Peter could very clearly see six or seven flashlights, and even more guns, pointed directly at him.

Peter counted 6 men, and 3 women in front of him, all dressed in black and looker absolutely  _ pissed. _

Oh God, he was screwed.

“Drop the wrench, kid.” One of the women said. “Don’t think that we care that you’re like, twelve.”

“I’m sixteen.” Peter muttered. One of the men didn’t seem to like that, because he fired his gun, and the bullet shot right past Peter’s head and into the wall behind him.

Okay, so it seemed these guys were fine with killing a kid. Not great. 

Peter hated the sound the wrench made when he dropped it. He held his hands up to show he was unarmed. 

Okay, okay, now was probably the time to go Spider-man. There were nine guns pointed at him, and he was alone. He could take out nine people. But they would know who he was, and then-

Something slammed into the back of Peter’s head, hard, and he couldn’t think anymore.

\---

Yeah, Tony wasn’t getting to his suit any time soon.

Those assholes had completely blocked off the way into Tony’s workshop where all his suits were. He’d have to hope they’d eventually start to dwindle away or that he could find some way to get F.R.I.D.A.Y back online. But for now, Tony would just have to go get Peter and get somewhere safe. Like the bomb shelter. He felt like such an idiot for not thinking of it before. He’d forgotten the compound had a bomb shelter when people were hurling bombs at him.

_ Wow. What a genius you are, Tony. _

Tony made his way through the debris and back to the janitor’s closet, trying to work out how they could get to the bomb shelter unnoticed.

Grabbing the door handle and opening the closet, Tony began to explain his plan. “Okay, okay, we can’t get to the suits right now, but there’s a bomb shelter about 4 feet under the basement. Probably should have gone there first, but my genius brain decided to forget-”

But before Tony could get into the actual plan, he lost his voice. Because the closet was empty.

It was fucking  _ empty. _

No, no, no, it couldn’t be empty. Peter had said he’d stay in here. That he’d stay safe. Tony looked around the room, praying he was missing something. But the closet was tiny. And Peter clearly wasn’t in it.

“No, no, God, please, no.” Tony gasped, suddenly unable to use his feet. He grabbed one of the shelves and held his chest, trying to ease away the panic. Tears filled his eyes, and his breaths came out short and almost in sobs.

But even after Tony got his breathing back on track, the panic remained.

Because this time, he may have lost Peter for good.

  
  



	2. The Escape

_ “Tony? Tony, are you there?” _ _  
  
_

Tony nearly screamed for joy when he heard Pepper’s voice over the laptop’s microphone. Some part of him thought that whoever these people were had gotten to her as well in Toronto. But he could hear her voice, and though it sounded terrified, it made Tony nearly fall out of his chair.

“Oh my God, Pepper,” Tony breathed, considering kissing the screen. “I just, there- oh, thank God, you’re alive.”

_ “Tony, what’s happening? F.R.I.D.A.Y went down last night! I haven’t been able to reach you, I thought something happened!” _ _  
  
_

_ Something did happen. _ Tony thought.  _ Something I promised I wouldn’t let happen happened. _

He didn’t want to tell her. He didn’t want to tell her that twelve hours ago, the entire compound’s power had been cut. That twelve hours ago, a mob of almost 500 people had cut off his access to most of his tech.

That twelve hours ago was the last time he saw Peter.

He’d looked around for the kid as much as he could without being seen. He looked on every ceiling, hoping to see the kid sticking up there. In every nook and cranny, praying to see Peter cramming himself into one. But he was nowhere. 

And now, having made it into the bomb shelter through a hidden entrance that he deeply regretted not telling Peter about, he’d spent seven hours with his cell phone and an old laptop, trying to get a call through to Pepper while his mind tormented him with horrible scenarios of what could have happened to his kid. He could have been shot, or kidnapped and being held for ransom, or blown up, or beaten-

_ “Tony. Tell me what’s wrong! Are you alright?” _

He couldn’t take it anymore. The hours of worry and terror not for himself, but for the people he valued most, caught up to him, and it all poured out.

“Pep, you can’t come back to the compound,” He said with as much urgency as possible. “There’s this massive mob outside, almost 500 people. They’re armed and they cut the power and they’ve been hurling homemade grenades at the compound for hours.”

He almost sobbed at the final part. “And-and I can’t find the kid.”

Pepper was silent for a moment.  _ “What do you mean?” _

“I mean I left him in a closet for twenty minutes, and when I came back, he was gone! I looked for hours, Pep, and I couldn’t find him! These people, they took him, I know it, and they’re probably cutting him, or waterlogging him, or-”

_ “Tony. Stop.” _

Pepper was like the one light in this otherwise horrible situation. She pulled him out of his nightmarish visions of what could be happening to Peter, and back to his right mind. 

_ “Honey, I’m just as worried as you are. But if you keep thinking about what  _ could  _ be happening, you lose sight of what  _ is  _ happening. And what is happening is that you are panicking instead of trying to do something to help Peter. I’ve told you this before. You can’t let fear control you, or you’re no help to anyone. Not me, not Peter, no one.” _

She had said that. She said that when Peter had first gone back out as Spider-man. And Tony had said it to Peter when he’d nearly had a panic attack over the mob.

But now, Tony had to use that advice for himself. And so that he could get Peter back.

“Okay.” Tony said, taking a deep breath. “Okay, you’re right. Just gotta find a way to get my suit-”

_ “Why not call Rogers?” _

“I cannot face Steve Rogers right now, Pep. I don’t even know where he is.”

_ “Okay, okay, fine. I’ll call Rhodey. The compound is government property, right? So those people are trespassing. That’s probably a good excuse to get whatever law enforcement is left out there.” _

“That, and there are hundreds of deadly weapons here?”

_ “That too, Tony.” _

“Okay, that’s good.” There was now a way to clear the mob out of the compound. But it still didn’t help the thing that was ten times more important.

“Peter. I have to find him now, Pep, before they hurt him or worse.”

_ “I know, I know. Just keep yourself calm, stay wherever you are- where are you?” _

“Bomb shelter.”

_ “Right, good. Stay there, and maybe try and get some kind of power back online. Maybe he’s still in the compound somewhere. You might be able to get some video feeds somewhere.” _

Tony smiled at his fiance’s brilliance. “I hate that you always have the best solutions to everything.”

_ “It’s my job to have the best solutions, Tony. Now buckle down and find your kid. And please, please in the name of all that is holy, stay safe. I love you.” _

Tony wished she was there so he could kiss her. “I love you too. So, so much.”

And then the call was dropped, and Tony was about to crack his knuckles, and find a way to get the power back on. He was ready. Nothing was going to stop him from getting his kid back.

But just as he stood up, his phone let out a chime that echoed through the walls of the shelter.

Huh. That was… weird.

Tony had managed to set up a cell signal, which is how he had reached Pepper. Was she texting him a tip or something?

Tony picked up the phone, and glanced at the text message.

His eyes widened. It was a phone number he’d never seen before, but all he had to do was read the words to know who it was from.

_ I’m okay. Coming back now. Please stay safe. _

\--- One hour earlier

Peter’s awakening was very sudden.

Probably because it involved a bucket of freezing cold water being dumped on his head.

He gasped, eyes flying open and darting around as the stabbing cold feeling entered his skin. Everything was a bit blurry, and Peter could only hear snippets of what people around him were saying.

_ Jesus Christ, you’d think after 11 hours he’d have just- _

_ -don’t know what he is. But if he’s a kid in the fucking Avengers compound, he must be of some value. _

_ Get his head straight, Andrew. _

That was when someone grabbed his hair and pulled him out of his daze.

It was a middle-aged guy, and Peter could distinctly feel him pressing a knife to his throat. Any normal person would have had a heart attack right then and there, but Peter was more focused on his surroundings.

The room was in a basement, Peter knew, and he could see a small slit of sunlight coming through a window that was half covered in dirt. And he was also tied to a chair. He was only restrained by ropes though, which were relatively easy to break out of. But Peter still had a knife to his throat, a secret identity to keep, and he only just noticed that there were six other people in the room, five of which were holding guns.

Shit.

The guy in front of him smiled an incredibly creepy smile. “Ah, there he is. Have a nice 11 hour nap, kiddo?”

Weirdly enough, Peter hated that more than being knocked out, tied to a chair, and having a knife to his throat. Only Tony called him Kiddo. And he liked it that way.

“Well,” Peter said, still out of it enough to be sassing his kidnappers. “I didn’t exactly like it being interrupted by getting soaked in ice-cold water.”

“Trust me, kid.” Knife Guy said. “We can do a lot worse than that to you if you don’t comply.”

“Wow, you’re like, the most generic kidnappers ever.”

This time, the guy dropped the knife, favoring giving Peter a hard punch in the face. It hurt, but not as much as it would on a normal person. But Peter still cried out, not wanting them to suspect anything.

“Okay, yeah.” Peter said, breathing heavily. “Message received.”

“Good.” The Knife Guy stood straight up, slowly pacing around the room, probably to make Peter even more uncomfortable than he already was. He hated that it worked.

“Alright, here’s how this is gonna go. You don’t get to ask questions. I do. I think you’re lying, and I give you what I gave you earlier. I highly recommend the truth if you wanna walk outta here alive.”

“Aren’t you going to kill me anyway?”

Another hit to the face. “Okay, okay, I’ll stop.”

“First question. Where is Stark?”

Tony. Holy shit, Tony was still at the compound. He probably lost his mind when he saw Peter wasn’t in the closet. But these guys asking him where he was meant that Tony was still alive, so that was good.

“I don’t know.”

Another hit. This one actually did hurt a lot. “Shit, I’m serious! I genuinely don’t know where he is right now. Odds are, he already left the compound.”

That was a lie. Tony was probably in the bomb shelter underneath the compound, but these assholes didn’t need to know that.

“Where would he have gone?”

“I don’t know. He never tells me anything.”

That earned him another hit to the face. Wow, he sucked at lying.

“Tell me kid. Who are you?”

He didn’t really have to lie for this one. He just had to omit the truth about him being a super-powered vigilante. “Just an intern. I’m basically nobody.”

“Why would an intern be in the Avengers Compound after half of the world died?”   


His annoyed look faltered when he thought about the reason. “B-because the last of his family was in the unlucky half.”

The guy smirked. “Finally, you give us a true answer.”

Peter couldn’t take it anymore. “Who are you people?”

He knew what was coming next. He felt the fist collide with his cheek, and he had to admit, it hurt like a bitch. He didn’t want to think of how Tony would react if he knew what was happening to him right now.

“I told you. I get to ask the questions.” Peter blinked out of the daze the punch had left him, and saw the guy’s face curl into a creepy smile. “But I’ll be generous. We’re just like you. We lost everything to that Thanos asshole and his Rock Collection of Destiny. But we can’t go after him, so we’re taking out the next best thing.”

Peter’s stomach dropped. “The Aveng-”

“The Avengers.”

The way he said it made Peter roll his eyes.

"They said they would save us. They said they would protect the world. Instead, they made it ten times easier for half of it to die. I want revenge. We all want revenge. And we can get that if every single Avenger goes down.”

He grabbed Peter’s chin and forced him to look directly into his eyes. “Vengeance will be mine. It will be ours.”

That had to be the most cliche line the guy had said this whole time. But still, the thought of these people killing the Avengers, especially Tony, made him sick to his stomach.

His chin was released, and the guy started pacing around again. “You know, I have a feeling you’ve been lying this whole time.”

“Yeah, all the times you punched me said that.” 

“Keep talking and you’ll wish that’s all we did to you.” He stopped and did another creepy smile. “As I was saying, you’re probably more to Iron Man than you’ve been letting on. I mean, the asshole doesn’t just let any old intern lag around at the Avengers compound. How much you wanna bet he gives himself up so we’ll let you off scot free?”

Peter felt the blood drain from his face. That was absolutely something Tony would do. But he couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t let Tony die for him. He could let Tony die period. But he was also surrounded by six guns. He had his strength, but no webshooters, no suit, no-

Then, out of nowhere, the door burst open.

Peter’s heart sprang. Was it Tony? Had Tony somehow come to save him?

The arrow that impaled his interrogator said otherwise.

He couldn’t hold back the shocked and disgusted, “Holy fuck!” that came out of his mouth.

The guy screamed, and Peter’s secret identity could be damned. He tore through the ropes on his wrists and ankles, and kicked him in the stomach hard enough that he flew across the room, slamming into the back wall.

He expected to be hit with an onslaught of bullets, but instead, before anyone could fire anything, an arrow was lodged somewhere in everyone’s body but his. 

Peter’s jaw dropped, as he saw one sticking out of where someone’s heart was. But before he could see anymore of the probably fatal hits, a figure bent down in front of him, pulled out a knife and began cutting through the ropes around his chest. Peter didn’t even have to guess who it was.

“Hawkeye.”

The man finished cutting the ropes and helped Peter out of the chair, taking off his mask. “You alright, kid?”

His face still ached from how many times he’d been punched, but it was overshadowed by his shock. “What- how-how did you know I was here?”

“I didn’t. I was already here and happened to hear some of those assholes talking about how they’d grabbed some kid from the Avengers compound.”

“You work for these people?”

“Hell, no. These people torture and kill anyone who have anything to do with the Avengers.”

“I thought you were done with the Avengers.”

“I am. But these people are fucking insane.”

Peter didn’t mention the fact that Clint had just shot a man in the heart.

Speaking of which, Peter almost looked at the bodies lying around, but Clint grabbed his face and made Peter look at him. “No. You shouldn’t see this. Listen to me.” He pulled out a car key. “Go down the hall, turn left, and do NOT look at anything down the right hall. Last door on the right is the garage. There’s a white van with one of its back lights blown out. Drive as far away as you can.”

Peter tried to process all the information. “What did you do?”

“That’s not important. Just go as fast as you can. There are still a ton of people here.”

“What are you-”

“Go, Parker. Now.”

The look Clint gave him was so severe that Peter actually felt obligated to listen. However, he looked down and said quietly, “Thank you. For saving me.”

Clint patted his shoulder. “Go.”

\---

Peter slammed on the breaks about twenty minutes after he sped out of the warehouse’s garage.

The events of the past hour had finally caught up to him. He’d been kidnapped by a bunch of psychopaths intent on killing all the Avengers, tortured, and saved by Hawkeye-

Hawkeye.

He stopped the car and yanked the keys out the second he realized why Hawkeye had been there in the first place. Why he didn’t want Peter to look at what he’d done.

What he’d planned on doing.

“Oh my God.” Peter gasped, putting his hands over his mouth. He wanted to cry. He’d come so close to death, and hadn’t tried to stop Clint Barton from killing all those people. They had hurt him, but they still hadn’t deserved to die.

Had they?

Peter took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. For now, he’d have to forget about the lives that had been lost. He had to get back to Tony.

The first thing he could do was contact Tony. Maybe there was a phone or a computer somewhere. 

Wiping the tears he didn’t know were there, he looked around the van, under the seats, in the back. Finally, when he looked in the glove box, there was a small black iphone. The screen was cracked, but it turned on. But Peter’s hopes of hearing Tony’s voice were dashed when he saw the phone was only at 2%. 

“Fuck.” Peter muttered. There was no way he could get a call through to Tony with only 2% battery. In fact, there was no guarantee that Tony was even alive. For all he knew, he’d been discovered and killed while Peter was being interrogated. That thought made Peter’s eyes wet again. He couldn’t lose Tony. Not after he’d lost May.

He could text Tony’s phone, though. Something short and simple, just to let him know he was okay. He wouldn’t get a reply, but if Tony was alive it would certainly ease his nerves to know that Peter was okay.

So, he opened the message app, typed in the number he knew by heart, and wrote:

_ I’m okay. Coming back now. Please stay safe. _

He prayed the intended recipient was alive to see it as he pressed send.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hit a rough patch in my mental health over the last week and lost some of my motivation to write. But I swear to God this will not become one of those fics that gets ditched right before the ending, so stay tuned!


	3. The Crash

After Peter calmed himself down, he began driving again. The guilt of letting Hawkeye kill all of those people was probably going to haunt him for a while, but that didn’t matter. He had to get back to the compound.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have even an inkling of a plan. He didn’t even think he’d escape that place alive, much less get rid of the giant mob that was in the compound. He had no idea when the military would show up, or the rest of the Avengers, so it was kind of up to him to get in there and save Tony.

“Okay.” Peter muttered to himself. “Okay, okay, okay. Just, get down there, save Tony, and then bail. Perfect plan.”

Okay, that wasn’t much of a plan, but Peter just got saved by Hawkeye, who probably was murdering a crap ton of people at that moment. Give him a break.

Peter took a deep breath, telling himself that everything would be okay. That was probably a lie, but he still wanted to believe it.

So he kept on driving. To the compound, Tony, and his very likely death.

\---

Tony had nearly fainted when he saw the text.

He hadn’t recognized the number, but he instantly knew who it was from. He felt a massive breath of relief leave his lips. Peter was okay. Or at least, he claimed he was. He knew Peter had a habit of down-playing his problems, so he didn’t really know if he was okay.

But he was alive. And that was a breath of fresh air that Tony had desperately needed.

He had to get to Peter. He had to find some way out this hellhole that wouldn’t get him killed. There weren’t many options, but he had brought down a repulsor gauntlet with him just in case.

Pepper would tear him limb from limb if she knew what he was about to do. He loved her, but he had a habit of never listening to her sound advice. At the moment, keeping Peter safe was more important than staying safe himself. 

He slid the gauntlet onto his hand and allowed it to power up. He put his phone in his pocket in hopes of getting another text from Peter or a call from Pepper.

Then, he left the bomb shelter.

\---

Tony usually had a great memory. 

Unless he was drunk, thinking about Pepper’s allergy to strawberries, or if he was in the endless tunnels beneath the compound.

The emergency lights were still on in the tunnels, meaning the main power was still out. It was like an endless maze of pipes and smooth stone walls and floors. Every staircase he reached had the distinct sound of footsteps above it, causing Tony to sprint in the other direction. 

In the past six months he had gained back the weight he lost in space, and his stab wound had healed relatively well, but every once and a while he would feel a resurgence of pain, like a shadow of Thanos running his own blade through his abdomen.

And as he was running from the fifth staircase (or fourth. Or sixth, he lost count), he felt the wound flare up again.

Black spots appeared in his vision as he bit back a pained yell. He had to stop as he leaned against the wall, clutching the place where the scar was.

“No, no, no.” He whispered through clenched teeth. “Goddammit, not now.”

Damn Thanos. If Thor hadn’t done the deed already, he’d kill him personally for potentially stopping him from getting to Peter.

The black spots eventually left his vision and he prepared to keep going, but of course, he should have known to just keep going despite the pain.

Because suddenly, a gun pressed to his back.

“Don’t move.” A woman’s voice said. 

He whirled around, and the gun fired. It hardly missed Tony’s shoulder, but it slammed into what was thankfully a water pipe, and not a gas one.

Shit, he hadn’t thought about the gas pipes. One wrong shot from his repulsor, and he could hit one and potentially kill himself. He couldn’t do anything down here, but on the surface…

God, he really didn’t want to do this. But he didn’t see any other option.

He powered down his gauntlet and put his hands up. “I surrender.”

\---

The woman, who appeared to be only in her twenties, led him to the surface, the gun pressed to his back. Even when they were out of the way of the gas pipes, he didn’t shoot. This woman was literally escorting him where he wanted to go.

Well, sort of.

It felt eerily similar to when he was shoved around in that Afghan cave ten years ago. Only this time, there was only one gun pointed at him instead of dozens at a time.

He didn’t miss that place.

He formulated a plan as they went up the stairs. As soon as he was outside, he’d shoot this girl nonlethally with his gauntlet and make a run for either a suit or a vehicle. When he was out of the main area of the riot, he’d trace that text to wherever it had come from. It was simplistic, sure, but he’d make the rest up as he went. That’s how he came up with like, 90% of his plans.

Finally, they reached the cool autumn night air, but to Tony’s surprise, he wasn’t in the dead of the crowd. In fact, it seemed that they had only come out through a service entrance at the edge of the compound. No one was around, except…

A middle-aged woman, late forties, or maybe early fifties, was leaning against a light pole. A long blond braid was draped over her shoulder, and there was an almost sadistic look in her eyes when she caught sight of Tony.

He wanted to blast her and the woman behind him. But something about the way she looked at him made him go still. Not fear. He knew that all too well.

It was...guilt. And he didn’t even know what he did to this woman.

“You happy now, Ev?” The woman behind him said. 

“I will be.” The blonde said, walking up to them. Tony finally snapped out of his daze and powered up the repulsor and aimed it at her. Almost immediately however, she pulled out a gun and pointed it at him.

Great. Two guns.

“All right, all right.” He said, with the snark finally returning to his voice. “What did I do to you…”

“Evelyn.” She said, coming closer. “We’ve never met. You never knew me. But I’ve known you for years.”

“Unsurprising.”

Evelyn remained unfazed. “You know, you said you would protect us. You said you’d keep us safe. Alive. I believed that. My son believed that.”

All of the snark and sass left Tony. He had a feeling he knew where this was going, but Evelyn kept going anyway.

“You didn’t protect my son. You made him cry in my arms as he turned to dust. He was  _ ten years old _ . You killed him. YOU KILLED HIM!”   
  


This wasn’t the first time he’d been accused of killing someone’s son, unfortunately. But hearing his age and seeing this woman was going to act on her accusations made the horrible feeling of guilt in his chest grow. It was like when he thought the boy he’d thought of as a son was dead. He’d hoped he’d never feel that feeling again. And yet here he was, reliving the nightmare all over again.

Because he wasn’t good enough. 

He wasn’t good enough to protect Peter from these rioters. He wasn’t good enough to protect all the people who had died in the same. He-

-was so caught up in Evelyn’s words that he didn’t even notice headlights shining on the three of them until the very last moment. A van was headed right for all three of them.

Tony drove out of the way, unintentionally taking the woman behind him with him. He tumbled to the ground right as the front right corner of the van slammed into Evelyn, and she shrieked as she flew to the side, landing on her stomach and not getting up.

However, the van had turned so quickly that it fell to the side, slamming into the light pole and causing it to fall on the van, narrowly missing the driver’s seat.

Tony barely had processed what had happened when something kicked the damaged passenger door off. A figure climbed out, suddenly collapsing on the opposite side of the van.

All the blood rushed out of Tony’s face. He had only caught a brief glimpse of the figure’s face, but he’d recognize it anywhere.

“What- _ Peter _ ?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, yeah, I know. I couldn't come up with an ending to this for a while, and this chapter still isn't the end. But I finally got some inspiration and am going to work on finishing this up asap.  
> Thank you for reading!


	4. The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Look at that. I finally did it.

All sense of confusion at the crash disappeared the moment he realized who fell out of the van. He shot to his feet, sprinted up to the toppled-over van, and dropped to his knees next to Peter.

“Kid?! Hey-hey, I’m here-look at me, come on!”

The kid groaned in pain, and normally Tony would have freaked out at that, but now, he was just relieved that it was a sign the kid was alive. He’d spent half a day not knowing if the kid was dead or not. But seeing him now made all of the nerves in his body go silent, especially when the kid finally turned and looked at him.

“Hey, man.”

Tony actually laughed at how casually Peter uttered those two words. He carefully helped the kid sit up before taking him into his arms. He hugged him as tightly as humanly possible, and felt the kid’s arms come up to hug him almost immediately.

“Oh my god.” He whispered, burying a hand in Peter’s hair. “I thought you-Jesus, kid, where have you been?!”

“Long story.” Peter replied, pulling away from Tony but keeping his hands on his shoulders. “Are-are you okay?”

Of course that would be what Peter said. The kid didn’t care about himself enough to even acknowledge the fading bruises on his face and arms. Seeing that he was even a little hurt made Tony’s blood boil, but he’d have to wait to question Peter about who had dared to harm him. Because he could vaguely hear the sound of someone getting up behind him.

The woman who was still unnamed was slowly getting to her feet, gun still in her hand. Tony positioned himself as much in front of Peter as possible as the two of them got to their feet.

“Oh.” She said. “You’re that kid Ev was talking about.”

Tony pushed Peter even further behind him. He didn’t know how Evelyn had known about Peter, and he didn’t care to find out now. All that mattered right now was making sure Peter stayed safe.

“In case you were wondering,” She said, seemingly to Tony. “She said she’d pay me if I brought you to her. She wanted to kill you for killing her son.” 

“Yeah, I picked up that much from the gun pointed at my head.” He said viciously. 

She smirked, once again pointing the gun at the both of them. “Doesn’t look like she can do it herself now, and why let the mob down there have all the fun?”

The gun clicked, and suddenly Peter grabbed one of the pipes on the bottom of the van, and used his insane strength to yank the vehicle in front of them right as she fired.

The bullet collided with the metal contraption, and Tony heard the woman swear loudly. He turned to Peter, relieved at both the save and the fact that Peter’s use of his strength meant he wasn’t much worse for wear. 

He saw Peter’s cheeks flush red for a moment. “Sorry. I panicked.”

“Stop apologizing.” Tony said, a hand on Peter’s shoulder. “She’s gonna try again. I want you to stay behind me the whole time, okay?”

“But I-”

“ _ Peter. _ ”

The severity in Tony’s voice seemed to finally make Peter understand how worried he was. The overwhelming feeling of protectiveness was just like it was right after Peter had returned from Chicago. Even the thought of something happening to him made Tony sick to his stomach, and there was no way he was letting that thought come to fruition. He’d thought Peter was dead twice now. He wasn’t letting the third time be the charm.

When Peter remained silent, Tony nodded to himself and turned around, slipping the hand off of his shoulder. Maybe for once, Peter would actually listen to him and keep himself safe instead of trying to keep Tony safe.

Almost immediately when he came to the other side of the van, the woman was there prepared to shoot at him again. Before she could fire, Tony powered up his gauntlet and took a shot at her. It wasn’t set to kill, but it would knock her out for a good while.

It hit her directly in the chest, and she flew backwards, landing about twenty feet away and not getting up. 

That meant both of the women trying to kill him and Peter were down for the count. Hopefully none of the other rioters would come and see what was going on, so he could get Peter and-

Suddenly, a second, very close gunshot rang out from the back of the van where he had left Peter.

_ No. _

Tony rushed back to see Peter and-to his surprise and fury-Evelyn. Her side was stained with blood from where the van had hit her, but she barely seemed to notice. Peter seemed to be trying to wrestle her gun out of her hands, probably mentally debating on whether or not to show what he really was.

But within a second of Tony noticing the scene, Evelyn and Peter had caught sight of them. Before he could react, Evelyn swung Peter in front of her, pressing the gun to his temple. 

Pure rage filled every ounce of Tony, not just at Evelyn holding Peter hostage right in front of him. There was an actively bleeding wound on his upper arm. A bullet wound.

Evelyn had shot Peter.

“Get your fucking hands off him.” Tony growled, repulsor powered up. He couldn’t fire it without potentially hurting Peter even more, but it was still good for intimidation.

Peter himself was clearly in pain, blinking much more than usual and staring at Tony with both horror and determination, like he did whenever he was hurt. If Evelyn wasn’t holding a gun, he probably could have taken her out, but any movement made could kill him.

Evelyn laughed. It came out almost as a sob, filled with the hatred and anger of loss and grief. “Perhaps this would be better, Stark. You seem to care about this boy as much as I cared for my son. You should know how it feels to lose someone like that.”

“I said,” He clenched the gauntlet-lacking fist so tightly that he thought his fingernails would make his hand bleed. “Get you fucking hands off of him!”

“Or what?! You’ll shoot me? We both know you won’t. Not if I have-” She tugged Peter somehow closer, smirking. “Him.”

Peter kept his eyes on Tony, and his lips moved subtly as he mouthed something.

_ Shoot me. _

If the situation wasn’t so tense, Tony would have let out a humorless laugh. Did Peter actually think he was going to shoot him to knock Evelyn out? He’d never purposely harm the kid. Ever. 

When Tony didn’t show any signs of response, Peter mouthed it again.

_ Shoot me. _

Tony shook his head so slightly that Evelyn didn’t notice. Peter’s face was pleading. It was like he was begging to be more hurt than he already was. Why did he have to be so damn good? Why couldn’t he just put himself first for once and-

All of a sudden, the last thing Tony ever expected happened.

A repulsor beam hit Evelyn in the back, and she suddenly flew forward with Peter. The gun went off, but Tony saw the bullet strike into the ground a few feet away from him.

Thank God.

Instantly Tony powered down his repulsor, rushed up and pulled Peter up. He had pushed Evelyn’s body off of him and was now clutching his arm wound as he winced. “What-what the hell was that?!”

Tony didn’t answer. He instead tugged Peter behind him protectively, holding off from his frantic inspection of the bullet wound in favor of figuring out who had just saved the kid’s life.

The Rescue suit he had designed for Pepper stood a good thirty feet away from them, and the faceplate lifted up to reveal none other than his strong, amazing fiance. Her breathing was heavy and quick, but relief softened her features when she caught sight of Tony and Peter.

“Is that-” Peter started.

“The one and only.” Tony confirmed. The suit opened, and Pepper stepped out, rushing over and wrapping her arms around Tony.

“Damn you, Anthony.” She said quietly. “Can’t you just stay safe for more than five minutes?”

“Would you marry me if I could?” He asked with a small grin.

Pepper pulled away, kissing him gently and quickly. After a moment, she moved behind Tony and hugged Peter. He didn’t hug her back, but Tony could tell it was because of his arm and not because of embarrassment. When Pepper realized this, she pulled back to allow Tony to surge forward and examine the wound.

There was an entry and exit hole, thank god, and it would be bleeding much more if the bullet had struck anything serious. However, it needed to be cleaned and bandaged before it got infected. Tony pulled Peter close, and though the kid didn’t hug him back, he felt him bury his face into Tony’s shoulder. He was clearly exhausted, and Tony wasn’t about to let go of him anytime soon.

“Come on.” Pepper said. “Rhodey and Bruce are here, and we called in what’s left of S.H.I.E.L.D. They’ve already started dispersing the rioters.”

Tony sighed in relief, hugging Peter a bit tighter. “Music to my ears.”

\---

Six hours later, Peter was on a bed in one of the few medbay rooms that hadn’t been looted, feeling a lot better than he had when he’d first crashed that van. The bullet wound hadn’t been infected, and with his healing ability it would fade to nothing more than a memory in just a few days. The bruises he’d gotten from being tortured were almost completely gone, but Tony had subtly implied that he would gladly kill the man who had hurt him.

That is, until Peter told him he was already dead.

All while he was being examined by Bruce, Tony was at his side, demanding to know who had harmed him and why. Peter had tried to resist telling him, but Tony seemed so genuinely concerned that he caved after an hour.

As he went over the story, he wondered if he should tell Tony it was Hawkeye who had saved him. He had no idea if in the month between their interactions if his anger towards Tony had died down, or if Tony would even try to speak to him after what had happened. In the end however, he quickly let it slip out that Clint Barton had been the one who burst in to save him.

Tony gaped at him when he got to that part of the story. “I’m sorry, but since when do you know Clint Barton? Aside from Germany, that is.”

“Well…” Peter said awkwardly. “Remember when my suit shut down while I was patrolling last month? That was him. He shot me with this stun arrow thing and asked me where you were and stuff. But I got through to him, I swear! He didn’t hurt me badly or anything.”

The sight of a speechless Tony Stark was a startling one. He didn’t look at Peter for the first time in a while, instead staring down at his hands that were in his lap. 

“Um, Tony? You okay?”

“What?” He said, a bit absently. “Yeah, Pete, I’m fine. I just...wasn’t expecting that.”

Peter grinned. “You and me both.”

Tony sighed, his eyes moving to the bandage on Peter’s upper arm. The guilt on his face was evident, and Peter quickly tried to come up with something to get over that.

“It’s not your fault.”

“Of course it’s my fault. I left you alone in that closet, so you could get taken and tortured by those assholes. I left you alone behind that van so you could get shot. I swear to God, I’m never leaving you alone again. I don’t think my mental state can handle it.”

Peter sighed. “I’m sorry, but are you the one who knocked me out?”

Before Tony could respond, Peter kept going.

“Are you the one who hit me? Are you the one who shot me? Are you the one who snapped your fingers three months ago?”

When Tony failed to respond, Peter smirked. “No. You’re not. You didn’t do any of those things, okay? It’s. Not. Your. Fault.”

For a moment, Peter and Tony just stared at each other. Peter silently prayed that this would resonate with his mentor, in hopes that he wouldn’t be stuck to his side for the next twenty years. He didn’t mind Tony’s company, but he also needed his personal space at some point.

Finally, Tony sighed and brought Peter into yet another hug. “You’re too good, kid. You know that?”

Peter hugged Tony back with one arm. “I try.”

“Tony?”

Pepper’s voice interrupted the hug. She was leaning against the doorway, and her face slightly more red than it normally was. A hint of a smile pulled at her lips, but Peter had no idea what it was about.

“Hey, Pep.” Tony said, releasing Peter. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” She said a little too quickly before turning to Peter. “Are you alright, kid?”

“I’m good.” Peter said as confidently as he could. “Much better than I was earlier.”

Pepper nodded, satisfied. “Tony, can I talk to you in the hall for a few minutes?”

No surprise, Tony seemed skeptical to let Peter out of his sight. Peter smiled slightly. “It’s fine, it’s fine. What do you think will happen, I’ll just disappear into thin air?”

Judging by the look on Tony’s face, that probably wasn’t far off from what he was thinking.

“Tony, I’m fine. Go.”

Tony sighed, standing up. He kept his eyes on Peter for as long as possible, until he disappeared into the hallway.

\---

Tony wasn’t gone for a few minutes. 

He was gone for a whole hour.

It was for a good reason, though. A reason that left Tony’s heart pounding harder than it ever had before. It was one of the most unbelievable things he had ever experienced. And he’d met a talking raccoon.

When he returned to the room, Peter was out. For a second, the paranoid side of Tony took over, and he rushed over to press his fingers to the pulse point on Peter’s neck. There was a steady, normal heartbeat for someone who was asleep, and Tony breathed a sigh of relief as he sat down in the chair he had pulled up next to the bed earlier.

His hand moved to Peter’s hair, and he brushed a stray curl behind his ear. The kid didn’t even stir. 

Was this how it would be for him soon? Doing this to a much smaller, and younger human being? Feeling so fiercely protective that he would give his life to keep it safe?

It was. 

Pepper had found out while she was in Toronto, just before the riots were reported. She revealed to Tony that she was feeling sick earlier that day and had noticed that she had been late by a few days. She took three different tests, and though all of them had different symbols, they all meant the same thing.

Two pink lines.

A plus sign.

And the last one was the most clear, and most terrifying, of all.

_ Pregnant _ .

His soon-to-be wife was pregnant. 

That talk in the park three months ago had actually come to be. He was going to be a dad. A real, actual dad.

But for some reason, he felt much less scared than he felt he should. Most parents in this situation would be so panicked they would pass out. But for Tony, it felt...right. Like he knew more than most first time parents.

Because he wasn’t a first time parent.

Since he’d met Peter, he’d unwittingly acted as a parent to him. Trying to keep him safe and happy at all costs. Taking him in when it appeared that there was no one left who cared about him. Everything he’d ever done with or for the kid had been parental.

He was a parent. To  _ Peter. _

It shouldn’t have been such a shocking revelation, but it was. Damn Peter and his inadvertent ability to make Tony care about him so much.

He would be a good dad. Because according to Peter, he already was one. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have tried to insist that everything that had happened to him wasn’t his fault. 

Tony smiled, leaning over and kissing Peter’s temple. 

Things were bad now, but they would get better.

Tony and Peter would make sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap, I can't believe I finally came up with an ending to this fic. 2020 was hell on my mental state and it caused me to lose a lot of my motivation to write. But 2021 is already looking up for me, because I got this story done. Thanks to everyone who has read all of the random Irondad stuff I come up with at the exact worse time. I really appreciate it and intend to keep on writing.  
> Stay safe, friends!

**Author's Note:**

> Heheheh why be productive when you can finish off a fanfiction series that came to you when you were awake at 3AM  
> Comments are always welcome!


End file.
